The number of U.S. children under the age of four who were hospitalized with COVID-19 was five times higher during the peak of the Omicron surge than it was at the peak of Delta, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report finds.
The research, published Tuesday by the agency, found that children aged zero to six months old where most affected by Omicron, with around 60 of every 100,000 being hospitalized with Covid at the highly contagious variant’s peak.
While hospitalization figures are often misleading since they include people who are receiving treatment for another condition and testing positive while present, the CDC reports that 85 percent of hospitalizations included in the study had Covid as the primary cause.
Figures from this report may be startling, but the number of children hospitalized with Covid – even at its peak – is still a lower rate than that of adults.
Children are also extremely unlikely to die or suffer the most severe symptoms of the virus, a wealth of evidence shows.
Even during the hospitalization peaks, deaths remained low, with only four pediatric Covid deaths recorded at the peak of the Delta variant, and two at Omicron’s peak.
The CDC reports that the number of children hospitalized with Covid was five times higher during the peak of Omicron than it was at the peak of the Delta variant, with those aged six months or younger (black line) being hit the hardest
Even despite the surge during Omicron, hospitalizations among children (dotted line) remained significantly lower than those among adults (dashed line) throughout the pandemic, the CDC reports
Data was gathered via the Coronavirus Disease 19–Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network from March 2020 until mid-January 2022.
Children aged four or younger were included in the study, as this is the lone remaining age group in America that it still not eligible for the vaccine.
At the peak of the Omicron surge, which the CDC determined to be the week that ended on January 8, 2022, 14.5 of every 100,000 American children four or younger were hospitalized with the virus.
During the peak of the Delta variant’s reign, the week that ended on September 11, only 2.9 of every 100,000 children were hospitalized with the virus.
For comparison, the overall level of hospitalizations in the U.S. population reached around 30 per 100,000 residents during that same January week, and 11 per 100,000 during the September week.
There is a growing wealth of evidence showing that children face little risk from the virus, and that pediatric deaths are extremely rare. Pictured: A young child in Chicago, Illinois, receives a COVID-19 test on December 14
This signals that children still made up a very small portion of the overall Covid hospitalized patients during both weeks, which has been the case throughout the pandemic.
Around half of children admitted with Covid had an underlying condition of some sort that increased their risk of severe infection as well, the report states.
Children under the age of six months old were struck hardest during Omicron, and the hospitalization rate for the age group jumped six-fold during the winter surge.
This age group is often hospitalized for other reasons, though, and the CDC report did not specify whether this age group in particular had more hospitalizations due to a non-Covid cause than the others did.
The six month old to 23 month old age group peaked during the Omicron surge with just over ten hospitalizations per 100,000 members of the population, and the two to four year old age group reached nearly five per 100,000.
Data shows that children face little risk from COVID-19, with a ever-growing trove of data showing that they are not nearly as affected by it as adults are.
The CDC reports that children only account less than 0.1 percent of Covid deaths in the U.S. since the pandemic first began.
The agency did not immediately respond to a DailyMail.com inquiry about its response to the issued guidance.
A study from the University of Utah last year found that 50 percent of pediatric Covid cases are asymptomatic. The study was performed before the more-mild Omicron variant emerged, meaning the risk for children to even feel symptoms is likely lower now.
Children may also be less likely to spread the virus when infected, with a German study finding that they release as little as only 25 percent of virus particles as adults do.
Data revealed by New York state officials at the end of last month also found that the shot was only 12 percent effective at preventing Covid infection for children aged five to 11.
